Well, IGN has revealed all of its nominees for the "Best of E3" awards, and PSP and DS were the first to have their winners revealed. Some surprises here.
http://psp.ign.com/articles/992/992659p1.html
| Best Action Game Fat Princess: Fistful of Cake Release date: Fall 2009 Fat Princess brings all of the bright colors, cartoony graphics, and buckets of blood that fans are getting ready to play on the PS3 and shrinks the experience down to the PSP. Here, you'll have the same character hats and weapons, but you'll also be getting PSP exclusive maps as well as ad-hoc and infrastructure multiplayer. |
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| Runners-Up |
Watch the creators explain it >> |

| Best Fighting Game Dissidia Final Fantasy Release date: August 25, 2009 Surprisingly, the competition for Best Fighting Game on the PSP was fierce at this year's E3, but one game stood out: Dissidia Final Fantasy. This Square Enix title has tremendous potential, as it combines characters from across the Final Fantasy universe into one high-action, magic-filled brawler. This game is very likely to be one of the PSP's finest. |
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| Runners-Up |
Watch the trailer >> |

| Best Music Rhythm Game Rock Band Unplugged Release date: May 26, 2009 Packing 41 songs and just about every bell and whistle you'd expect from a console version of the franchise, Rock Band Unplugged drops the plastic instruments, keeps the bass, drum, vocal, and guitar tracks; and assigns the falling notes to your PSP's face buttons. Think playing "ABC" by the Jackson 5 is easy? Try doing it while switching tracks with the shoulder buttons and keeping your multiplier going. |
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| Watch our video review >> |

| Best Platforming Game LittleBigPlanet Portable Release date: TBA 2009 LittleBigPlanet was nothing short of a breakthrough title on the PlayStation 3 thanks to its incredible creation tools coupled with its physics-based gameplay. The PSP version looks to bring the same experience to Sony's handheld, featuring the same great, simple controls with inventive level design and tons of stickers and objects to collect. We're about to be hooked all over again. |
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| Runners-Up |
Read our preview >> |

| Best Puzzle Game Echochrono Release date: Winter 2009 If Echochrome didn't bend your brain enough, Echochrono is here to finish the job. You'll have a cast of wire mannequins that you need to move through some puzzling levels in a preset time limit. Instead of trying to get to the exit in one turn, you have to use your dummies so that when their ghosts pull off the same moves, it'll benefit the character you're currently playing as. Trippy. |
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| Watch the trailer >> |

| Best Racing Game Gran Turismo PSP Release date: October 1, 2009 After more than a five-year gap between its first announcement and the first real showing (and hands-on) of the game, it was great to see the game looking in tip-top form. Running at 60fps, it drives smooth as silk. With more than 800 cars to be earned, the announcement of the sharing aspect was a great treat for fans. We can't wait to take it for a few (hundred) more laps. |
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| Runners-Up |
| Best Role-Playing Game Half-Minute Hero Release date: Fall 2009 Everyone loves a good RPG, but sometimes the stories and time-suck formula can get stale. Half-Minute Hero does away with those problems by giving you just 30 seconds to complete every task. You'll get a mission in a stellar cutscene and get sent out into an 8-bit world with the clock ticking. Can you level-up, buy health, and save the world in 30 seconds? |
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|
| Runners-Up |
Check out the screenshots >> |

| Best Shooting Game SOCOM: Fireteam Bravo 3 Release date: Winter 2009 What's better than killing terrorists with a silenced machine gun? How about doing it with three of your best friends? SOCOM: U.S. Navy SEALs Fireteam Bravo 3 packs a brand new campaign for you and your friends to tackle as part of a four-man SEALs crew. You can customize your weapon sets, craft squad attack plans, and so much more. |
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|
| Watch the trailer >> |

| Best Strategy Game PixelJunk Monsters Deluxe Release date: Fall 2009 Everyone loved the tower defense game PixelJunk Monsters, and now that exact experience has been boiled down to the PSP and given a booster shot of content. You'll still need to dance around towers to upgrade them in Deluxe and deal with a smattering of beasts, but you'll have a brand new island of levels and some new towers to use. |
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|
| Watch the trailer >> |

| Special Achievement for Innovation Invizimals Release date: TBA Pokemon games never clicked for us on the PlayStation Team, but Invizimals -- a Pokemon-like game that projects the beasts into your living room via the PSP camera -- does. While watching the live camera feed on your PSP screen, you'll scour your house looking for these beasts. After finding and trapping them, you can pit them against one another in 3D fights that happen wherever you're pointing the camera. |
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|
| Runners-Up |
Watch the trailer >> |

| Best Artistic Design LittleBigPlanet Portable Release date: TBA 2009 LittleBigPlanet's art design is so unique that the game is immediately recognizable from a single screenshot, and the same, already classic, style looks to have been transferred to the PSP beautifully. What we played featured a new Australian setting, and the team looks to have kept the content perfectly in line with everything we've seen before. Great stuff. |
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|
| Runners-Up |
Check out the screenshots >> |

| Best Graphics Technology Soulcalibur: Broken Destiny Release date: Fall 2009 Although there were a lot of good-looking PSP games at E3 2009, the one that continuously amazes us is Soulcalibur: Broken Destiny from Namco Bandai. This fantastic fighting game packs the entire Soulcalibur IV experience into a UMD, which is a truly a marvelous feat. From character models to backgrounds, Broken Destiny is a looker for sure. |
![]() |
|
| Runners-Up |
Watch the trailer >> |

| Biggest Surprise Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker Release date: TBA 2010 Going into E3, we knew that Metal Gear was going to appear in some fashion, thanks to Kojima's teaser site that kept the entire PlayStation community on edge for days. When Peace Walker was announced, some gamers were pleased, some were disappointed, but all were surprised. Who would have thought that Big Boss would make the rounds on Sony's portable again? |
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|
| Watch the trailer >> |

| Best Multiplayer Experience Gran Turismo PSP Release date: October 1, 2009 The Gran Turismo franchise has taken a while to come to the PSP, but now that it's finally almost here, it looks like the wait was worth it. The four-player Ad-Hoc racing is nice (and certainly expected), but it's the car trading aspect that pushed this over the edge for us. As gamers will unlock cars in different orders, the trading feature is not only cool, but promises to be extremely helpful as well. |
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|
| Runners-Up |
Check out the screenshots >> |

| Best Non-playable Presentation Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker Release date: TBA 2010 When the words "Metal Gear Solid" appear on a screen, people pay attention. At Sony's press conference, Kojima officially unveiled Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker, the next portable version of the legendary franchise that will follow what looks like Big Boss. The visuals look phenomenal for a PSP game and the presentation really got the audience excited. We can't wait for more. |
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|
| Watch the trailer >> |

| Best Hardware/Peripheral PSPgo Release date: October 1 The PSPgo is real! Although the entire surprise was leaked just before E3, it's great to see the PSPgo hit the spotlight. Although we would have liked to see the next breed of PSP pack a touch screen and some reworked internal hardware, the sliding screen and download-only options are intriguing. Let's see how it does. |
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|
| Watch the PSPgo unveiling >> |

| Special Achievement for Technological Excellence Invizimals Release date: TBA The PSP camera has never gotten much use in the states, but combining it with the tech of Invizimals will hopefully change that. When you play this game, you're seeing a live feed of whatever the camera is pointed at with the game's characters existing in it in 3D. Moving the PSP rotates the camera around them -- they're not flat sprites -- and they react to noise and your touching them. |
![]() |
|
| Runners-Up |
Watch the trailer >> |

| PSP Game Of The Show LittleBigPlanet Portable Release date: TBA 2009 We're not too surprised that LittleBigPlanet looks like it's a wonderful offshoot of the fantastic PlayStation 3 game, but that doesn't lessen its impact in any way. The game controls very well, looks to make great use of the physics-based puzzles that we saw in the PS3 variant and the cute and cuddly design is fully intact. We're pretty much already sold. |
![]() |
|
| Runners-Up |
| Best Role-Playing Game Half-Minute Hero Release date: Fall 2009 Everyone loves a good RPG, but sometimes the stories and time-suck formula can get stale. Half-Minute Hero does away with those problems by giving you just 30 seconds to complete every task. You'll get a mission in a stellar cutscene and get sent out into an 8-bit world with the clock ticking. Can you level-up, buy health, and save the world in 30 seconds? |
![]() |
|
| Runners-Up |
Check out the screenshots >> |

| Best Shooting Game SOCOM: Fireteam Bravo 3 Release date: Winter 2009 What's better than killing terrorists with a silenced machine gun? How about doing it with three of your best friends? SOCOM: U.S. Navy SEALs Fireteam Bravo 3 packs a brand new campaign for you and your friends to tackle as part of a four-man SEALs crew. You can customize your weapon sets, craft squad attack plans, and so much more. |
![]() |
|
| Watch the trailer >> |

| Best Strategy Game PixelJunk Monsters Deluxe Release date: Fall 2009 Everyone loved the tower defense game PixelJunk Monsters, and now that exact experience has been boiled down to the PSP and given a booster shot of content. You'll still need to dance around towers to upgrade them in Deluxe and deal with a smattering of beasts, but you'll have a brand new island of levels and some new towers to use. |
![]() |
|
| Watch the trailer >> |

| Special Achievement for Innovation Invizimals Release date: TBA Pokemon games never clicked for us on the PlayStation Team, but Invizimals -- a Pokemon-like game that projects the beasts into your living room via the PSP camera -- does. While watching the live camera feed on your PSP screen, you'll scour your house looking for these beasts. After finding and trapping them, you can pit them against one another in 3D fights that happen wherever you're pointing the camera. |
![]() |
|
| Runners-Up |
Watch the trailer >> |

| Best Artistic Design LittleBigPlanet Portable Release date: TBA 2009 LittleBigPlanet's art design is so unique that the game is immediately recognizable from a single screenshot, and the same, already classic, style looks to have been transferred to the PSP beautifully. What we played featured a new Australian setting, and the team looks to have kept the content perfectly in line with everything we've seen before. Great stuff. |
![]() |
|
| Runners-Up |
Check out the screenshots >> |

| Best Graphics Technology Soulcalibur: Broken Destiny Release date: Fall 2009 Although there were a lot of good-looking PSP games at E3 2009, the one that continuously amazes us is Soulcalibur: Broken Destiny from Namco Bandai. This fantastic fighting game packs the entire Soulcalibur IV experience into a UMD, which is a truly a marvelous feat. From character models to backgrounds, Broken Destiny is a looker for sure. |
![]() |
|
| Runners-Up |
Watch the trailer >> |

| Biggest Surprise Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker Release date: TBA 2010 Going into E3, we knew that Metal Gear was going to appear in some fashion, thanks to Kojima's teaser site that kept the entire PlayStation community on edge for days. When Peace Walker was announced, some gamers were pleased, some were disappointed, but all were surprised. Who would have thought that Big Boss would make the rounds on Sony's portable again? |
![]() |
|
| Watch the trailer >> |

| Best Multiplayer Experience Gran Turismo PSP Release date: October 1, 2009 The Gran Turismo franchise has taken a while to come to the PSP, but now that it's finally almost here, it looks like the wait was worth it. The four-player Ad-Hoc racing is nice (and certainly expected), but it's the car trading aspect that pushed this over the edge for us. As gamers will unlock cars in different orders, the trading feature is not only cool, but promises to be extremely helpful as well. |
![]() |
|
| Runners-Up |
Check out the screenshots >> |

| Best Non-playable Presentation Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker Release date: TBA 2010 When the words "Metal Gear Solid" appear on a screen, people pay attention. At Sony's press conference, Kojima officially unveiled Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker, the next portable version of the legendary franchise that will follow what looks like Big Boss. The visuals look phenomenal for a PSP game and the presentation really got the audience excited. We can't wait for more. |
![]() |
|
| Watch the trailer >> |

| Best Hardware/Peripheral PSPgo Release date: October 1 The PSPgo is real! Although the entire surprise was leaked just before E3, it's great to see the PSPgo hit the spotlight. Although we would have liked to see the next breed of PSP pack a touch screen and some reworked internal hardware, the sliding screen and download-only options are intriguing. Let's see how it does. |
![]() |
|
| Watch the PSPgo unveiling >> |

| Special Achievement for Technological Excellence Invizimals Release date: TBA The PSP camera has never gotten much use in the states, but combining it with the tech of Invizimals will hopefully change that. When you play this game, you're seeing a live feed of whatever the camera is pointed at with the game's characters existing in it in 3D. Moving the PSP rotates the camera around them -- they're not flat sprites -- and they react to noise and your touching them. |
![]() |
|
| Runners-Up |
Watch the trailer >> |

| PSP Game Of The Show LittleBigPlanet Portable Release date: TBA 2009 We're not too surprised that LittleBigPlanet looks like it's a wonderful offshoot of the fantastic PlayStation 3 game, but that doesn't lessen its impact in any way. The game controls very well, looks to make great use of the physics-based puzzles that we saw in the PS3 variant and the cute and cuddly design is fully intact. We're pretty much already sold. |
![]() |
|
| Runners-Up |






















